St Mary of the Angels Scoop

General Information 

Packed with worm facts, Harriet’s Hungry Worms is the ideal companion for worm warriors and curious composters keen to roll their sleeves up and put their kitchen food scraps to good use

St Mary of the Angels Open Day 2nd August 2023

All Current and Prospective parents and carers are invited to attend an open morning at SMOTA. Come and spend the morning, Wednesday the 2nd August celebrating your child/children's learning experiences whilst experiencing classroom practices and acknowledging students achievements.  

Please RSVP to Flick or Naomi if you wish to attend for catering purposes. 

 

Transition to School 2024

Transition to School 2024

Transition Interviews will be held 7th, 8th and 9th of August. Parents will be contacted with a time and date upon booking.

Kindergarten Enrolments  2024

Tips for parents; From Mrs Ahumada

Tips for Kindergarten Parents about Data & 3D Space:

 

Data

  • Together with your child, keep track of the time they spend watching TV or using their device. At the end of the week, see if you can make a simple display of each day of the week and the time spent using their device or watching TV. 
  • Play games such as ‘paper, scissors, rock’ and record wins and losses. 
  • With your child, read and collect information about their favourite sports teams. This could be their own weekend sport teams. 
  • Collecting data together about something that you both find interesting. For example, what kinds of pets are most popular with your extended family or friends?

3D Space

 

Helping your child learn about three-dimensional objects

  • Look for objects inside or outside the house that are three-dimensional and describe them. Look for different sized objects in different positions.
  • Play ‘I spy' games and describe things by size and shape, eg "I spy with my little eye something that is big and shaped like a square".
  • Use boxes and containers of different sizes to play ‘stacking' games.
  • Ask your child to help you put away the groceries and talk about which things will stack easily.
  • Make biscuits using cookie cutters or make pretend biscuits from modelling dough. Talk about the shape of each biscuit.
  • Make sand models from wet sand using cups, buckets or jelly moulds. Talk about sizes and shapes and try to stack some onjects.
  • Blow bubbles using wire loops or straws and a detergent solution. Talk about the shape and size of the bubbles and the effects when the wire shape is changed.
  • Collect wood off-cuts and let your child glue the pieces to make a model.
  • Collect shells at the beach and ask your child to sort them and tell you how he or she grouped them.
  • Build a ‘house' from playing cards or dominoes.
  • Talk about the shapes made when you cut straight through vegetables or fruit.

 

Tips for Year 1/2 Parents for Chance and Chance

 

  • Talk about plans for family outings and the chances of the weather being favourable. Include possible, impossible, likely and unlikely scenarios in the discussion (e.g. Will there be a snow storm when we are having our picnic?)
  • Discuss other chance happenings that might occur (e.g. Do you think it is possible that Grandma will visit us tomorrow? What could happen at football today?) as well as how likely this is (e.g. Grandma might come to visit, but as she lives in Perth this is pretty unlikely).
  • Talk about chance when playing games (e.g. It’s possible that I will roll a six but not certain). 
  • using the language of chance such as certain, impossible, more likely, equally likely and less likely when describing everyday events. For example, I have an equally likely chance of tossing heads or tails on a coin flip or We are in the Summer season, so it is certain to be hot again tomorrow.

Subtraction (Separating Quantities)

 

using addition and subtraction to solve problems. You can help your Year 1 and Year 2 child at home by:

  • Practising quick recall of double numbers to 10. Use double domino tiles to extend thinking to doubling numbers to 20 
  • Finding and discussing numbers in everyday life that are not meant to be used with place value, such as phone numbers, pin numbers, bus numbers and postcodes
  • Using number bonds, or ‘friends of 10’, to assist with simple addition and subtraction problems. For example, 4 + 6 = 10, 6 + 4 = 10, 10 - 4 = 6, 10 - 6 = 4

How To Teach Number Bonds? | Maths – No Problem!

  • Using number bonds to solve addition problems by making groups of 10. For example, the problem of 26 + 8 can be solved by taking 4 from the 8 and adding it to the 26. The new problem of 30 + 4 is much easier to solve
  • Solving problems using their knowledge of doubles. For example, the problem 8 + 9 can been seen as double 8 (8 + 8) which is 16. Add one more to make 17 
  • Building number bond knowledge to understand ‘friends of 20’. These number pairs are 11 and 9, 12 and 8, 13 and 7, 14 and 6, 15 and 5.

Winter is here!

With a confirmed COVID-19 case presented within the school community please be aware of symptoms that come with COVID-19.

  • fever
  • coughing
  • sore throat
  • shortness of breath.

Other symptoms include:

  • runny nose or congestion
  • headache or fatigue
  • muscle or joint pains
  • nausea or loss of appetite
  • diarrhoea or vomiting
  • temporary loss of smell or altered sense of taste.

Coming into the cooler months please be mindful of the many other sickness that occurs during winter. To help students feel more comfortable when sick and to reduce the spread of illness please keep your child/children home where possible if they are sick or exhibit symptoms of being sick.  

Keep connected with what is happening at school through Compass & the Newsletter

Please make sure you are connected to COMPASS and receive the newsletter.

All families need to have login credentials to the COMPASS portal. Regular information comes from this site to families. Each parent is given a login. If you have lost your login details or are having difficulty logging in please call the School Office for assistance.

It is also really important to read the newsletter fortnightly. 

Library Borrowing Days:

Please encourage all children to return and borrow each week. Pack their book the night before and they will never forget.

Back to School Vouchers

St Mary's is accepting the The Premier's Back to School NSW Vouchers for new uniform items such as the school bags and school hats.  Please note that second hand clothing pool items are not eligible for the vouchers.

YOUTH VOICE IN SCHOOLS

The 2023 NSW Youth Advisory Council (YAC) are passionate about ensuring young people have a say when it comes to their education, and they want to hear from students about how schools can best listen to students. If you are interested please scan the barcode on the attached image and complete the survey.

 

School Fees

Thank you to our School community for your continuing payments of school fees.  With many families in difficult times, we are very fortunate that everyone makes the greatest effort to pay school fees which supports the education of all students.  Thank you.

 

I also ask parents to ensure their fees are up to date.  School fees are a crucial economic requirement to ensure all our students can access the curriculum and be provided with improved educational outcomes.  Money collected from school fees is directed towards the children of today.  Any family requiring assistance with school fees is encouraged to contact the school office. 

Techone - Options for paying 

As we have now fully transitioned to the new finance system Techone, their are new ways in which you can make payments to the school, this includes Bpay, CompassPay and EFTPOS. You can make payments for School Fees and Events via the Compass App.  Please contact the School if you require assistance with the Compass App.